Crash Is Only a Fender Bender

Nothing is random in the universe. Molecules collide and interact constantly, shaping events in a dance that’s anything but haphazard in retrospect. The film Crash personified that motif as it detailed how seemingly unrelated lives intersect in utterly unexpected ways. In the process, it examined the prejudices that quietly shape us as individuals. It was a quiet film, unsettling in its pedestrian pacing. It went on to win the 2005 Best Picture Oscar. While a case could be made that Crash won by default, cancelling out the achievements of its competition, which included Brokeback Mountain, Munich, Good Night and Good Luck and Capote, the fact remains that Crash took a fresh, if sometimes heavy-handed look at the subtleties of the prejudices that divide us.

With its ensemble cast and intersecting storylines, Crash often played like a TV episode. In fact, it was originally envisioned as a TV series before it became a movie. As cable network Starz’s first foray into original programming, Crash has come full circle.

Sorta.

Starz touts Crash the TV series as a groundbreaking entry exploring similar themes as the original movie, but nothing in the first two episodes quite connects. In fact, there’s little that compels the viewer to care overmuch as to how the various plotlines might eventually connect. The characters here, by and large, are unsympathetic, propelled by cliché devices that hardly lend any credence to the notion we’re all connected. Dennis Hopper, as wacked out, over the hill and over the top record producer Ben Cendars, appears to be the centerpiece character of this hodgepodge. The first episode opens with him exposing himself to his female driver, while muttering Greecian-inspired, albeit incoherent, poetry. It then cuts to a soft focus sex scene—you know, the kind that shows nothing, but places the curves where the imagination fills in the blanks—which introduces us to the obligatory tainted cops in the series. From there, we cut to the Brentwood home of a real estate developer for whom things are not going well. His wife is going through a midlife crisis, while still trying to maintain their lifestyle. To top it all, her father has a choking problem in the middle of dinner. The EMT in the ambulance happens to be a Korean who has a Korean gang past.

It’s not so much that these characters don’t have the potential to be compelling. But they’re drawn so broadly, and their situations so irrelevant to Reality As We Know it, it’s hard to sympathize with any of the principals. Admittedly, Crash the movie had only about two hours to make its point. As a TV series committed to thirteen episode, it can move at a more leisurely pace. That being said, the fact remains that it’s essential to grab the viewer within the first ten minutes of the pilot. With the first ten minutes of Crash, we got bad poetry and masturbation. By the end of the second episode, we got requisite bad cops and A Streetcar Named Desire pleas to illicit lovers. If Starz wants to be a player in premium cable original programming, it’s going to have to pick up the pace.

You can see the first two episodes of Crash here. It’s also playing throughout the month on both Starz and its sister network, Encore.

A Different Kind of Cop Show, Eh?

Life these days is stressful. It costs over a hundred dollars to fill the belly of that behemoth SUV, and that’s only going to let you run everyday errands for a week or so, and that’s if you consolidate lunches, meetings, shopping, grooming trips and just getting to work. Once you do get to work, you have to deal with office politics, and the gossip of who’s stabbing who to climb another flimsy rail up the corporate hierarchy. And to top it off, you have to worry if your cherished salsa and chips are going to end you up in the hospital with a case of salmonella. As if that weren’t enough, a retired senator/economist from Texas has the audacity to tell us, in perfect “I’m alright, Jack” style, we’re a nation of whiners.

We’re not whiners by any means—we’re stress junkies. We thrive on it, and when real life doesn’t feed us with enough tension, we’ll get a vicarious fix through the TV. Seeing those hopeless souls on game shows and reality series give us a momentary sense of smug superiority, just knowing we would have chosen the obvious “T”, and not the what kind-of-idiot-are-you “L.” In the comfort of our living rooms, we lord over all we survey, and pity the poor souls dripping in flop sweat on the screen.

Flashpoint (premiering on CBS Friday, 11 July, 10P EST, and on CTV—check your local listings) is all about stress, at least in the pilot episode. This Canadian import begins in the height of the conflict, as we see a really, really stressed out Croatian holding a gun to a woman’s head while a negotiator (Enrico Collantini) tries to talk him down, despite language barriers. Meanwhile, a police sniper is perched on a rooftop, coldly awaiting orders to neutralize the perp. It’s a brief moment that establishes the tone of the show. It cuts to a few hours earlier, when the day was just another day. The police sniper (Hugh Dillon) is a family guy, thinking he’s planning for a colleague’s retirement party, despite it conflicts with his wife’s fortieth wedding anniversary. The Croatian hostage taker began the day thinking he’ll reconcile with his estranged wife, despite a restraining order to the contrary.

It’s in the backstories that Flashpoint differs from the usual procedural cop show. It’s not the slam-bang take no prisoners action adventure to which American audiences are accustomed. There’s plenty of tension and stress in the pilot episode, but it’s tempered with an underlying sense of emotion. It achieves something very rare in television—it causes you to empathize with all the characters, rather than just dropping bodies to and fro.

As it stands now, Flashpoint is slated for a thirteen episode run. On CBS. But if the pilot is any indication, this is a series that should be picked up for the fall season. It’s a well-crafted show, full of irony mixed with action, served up in a balanced blend that’s more cinematic than episodic. It would be a shame to lose a show that illustrates how our day to day lives really aren’t that stressful, relatively speaking.

Has Shark Run Aground?

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Shark has always been more a guilty pleasure than a serious pursuit. It’s an old school series with an unlikely premise—that an amoral, high priced trial attorney with a taste for luxury would suddenly develop a conscience, shuck it all and go to work as a prosecutor. With a premise like that, it was inevitable that the show would have to have an actor who shamelessly chews up scenery as its protagonist, the kind of actor audiences love to hate, and hate the fact they love him.

In short, Shark was the perfect vehicle for James Woods. That has proven to be a Damoclean sword for the series, however. Woods’ bombastic portrayal of Sebastian Stark often borders on the campy, especially in the courtroom scenes. Without his over the top performances, though, Shark would be just another procedural courtroom drama, albeit one that owes more to House, structurally speaking, than Perry Mason.

Courtroom procedure is a constrictive canvas, especially in the case of a show like Shark, with a lead character broadly painted by Woods. It’s no wonder, then, that Season Two has gradually veered away from standard courtroom fare to explore Stark’s unsavory past.

In “Bar Fight,” Stark’s unsavory past comes back to destroy his present and future. It seems that in 1996, he witnessed a client dispose of a body, and failed to mention it to the authorities. Twelve years later, the birds have come home to roost, and Stark faces disbarment, as well as accessory to murder charges. Riddled by guilt (not to mention the possibility his life could crumble), he goes on a quest to solve the mystery of how the victim actually died, and who was ultimately responsible for her death. The fact that he’s prompted by the state attorney general’s office to do this is to clear his name is of little consequence, of course.

The story is all a bit contrived, and very little of it rings true. Villains who are presented as killers with no conscience spend most of the episode negotiating with Woods’ character, rather than merely eliminating him. Despite the TV formula script structure, “Bar Fight” finally offers plot surprises and double crosses that leave us begging for more.

Admittedly, Shark faces an uncertain future, and “Bar Fight” could signal the end of its run. If that proves to be the case, this episode lets it go out with a modicrum of dignity. If, on the other hand, this episode represents a turning point in the show’s direction, it’s a just maybe possibility that Shark can redefine courtroom dramas.

I’m not really betting on the latter. Trapped between the currents of Boston Legal, Law and Order and its CSI brethren, Shark is a fish out of water. It’s been moved in scheduling slots repeatedly, and now it’s pitted against the forces of American Idol. It’s not a pretty scenario, but Shark has a tendency to beat the odds.

Stay tuned.

The Car of the Future: So Many Options, So Little Time

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We don’t have a love affair with cars—we’re obsessed with them. The automobile is that teenage crush that still haunts you, that illicit love affair from which no good could come, that harsh consort teasing you with promises of unbridled vitality and sex appeal—at a price, of course.

In my case, it was a ’75 Pontiac Firebird Esprit—black with a metallic sparkle underpainting and over the canopy silver and gold striping, powered by a tricked out 350 cubic inch V8 with a four-barrel carb. Its rumble spoke volumes about the nature of masculine power. Its exterior made it a chick magnet. It didn’t matter to me that I paid nearly $200 a month (in 1975) to attract all that attention. Even though I had a perfect driving record (mainly because I was never nabbed for racing), and my insurance rates rose as the car was reclassified as a sports car, I was happy in the knowledge that this was the closest I was ever going to get to the Batmobile.

But my beloved Firebird averaged only about 15 mpg, and it wasn’t even equipped with an afterburner. Gasoline prices were skyrocketing from the 49 cents a gallon I was used to—hovering at nearly a dollar a gallon-- and insurance costs weren’t decreasing, either. The ‘Bird and I reluctantly parted ways, but the memory of the times we shared still hold a special place in my heart.

Some thirty-odd years later, my passion for fast, cool cars hasn’t waned a whit. It’s tempered, though, with awareness that over 800 million fossil fuel-breathing dragons prowling this planet’s highways can’t go unchecked forever. NOVA: Car of the Future, airing on PBS beginning Earth Day, 22 April (check your local listings) looks at the challenges confronting the automotive industry, and consumers as a whole, in the quest for efficient alternatives to the internal combustion engine. Besides being vastly informative, it’s also hugely entertaining.

Tom and Ray Magliozzi, aka Click and Clack, hosts of NPR’s Car Talk series, frame the show as a quest to replace Tom’s beloved, but somewhat dilapidated, 1952 MG Roadster. Appropriately enough, a global road trip of sorts finds them exploring the future of the automobile, and more specifically, what will power it. Their journey moves from the traditional (the Detroit Auto Show) to the innovative (Iceland’s experiments with hydrogen-powered public transportation) to the explorative (the Tesla electric-powered sports car) and back again to the garage where it began. It’s sort of a magical mystery tour that explores the history of our love affair with the car while raising a brow or two about the consequences of that dalliance., John Lithgow

Hi-jinks alone do not a documentary make, of course, so Car of the Future balances out one-liner sarcasm, such as the ludicrousness of a 500+ horsepower Mustang, with somber narration delivered by John Lithgow, who points out that that the current number of cars on the road now would circle the Earth 1½ times, and that ratio is growing. That’s only a springboard, though. The show focuses more on alternatives than past mistakes. It’s interspersed with commentary from experts in various fields. David Greene, of Oak Ridge Laboratories, talks about the implications of the hydrocarbon footprint. Martin Eberhard demonstrates his Tesla prototype, an all- electric vehicle with a 250 mile range on a single charge, and capable of 0-60 in 4 seconds. Other experts, from diverse organizations ranging from environmental think tanks to General Motors, explore a multitude of options available as we wean ourselves from oil. They also delve into the problems those alternatives present.

In the end, Car of the Future poses more questions than answers. The future of the car is not uncertain—it’s only how it will change in a new environment. It’s an issue in which we all have a stake. To that end, PBS has a companion website to the show: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/car/production/ in which the public is invited to share their ideas about the automobile’s future.

There’s always going to be a place for Firebirds and MG’s. They’re just going to look a little different, and be a whole lot more efficient. We’ll all be driving Batmobiles someday.

Jericho: Revenge of the Peanut Gallery

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Jericho: The Return could easily be subtitled “Revenge of the Peanut Gallery.” After diehard fans flooded CBS with thousands of peanuts (by some counts, 40,000 pounds worth) protesting the show’s cancellation, Jericho got a seven episode reprieve. It’s do or die time now for the post-apocalyptic series set in Kansas, and it’s returned as a conspiracy theorist’s wet dream.

It appears now that the “September” attacks launched against 23 cities and resulting in some 15 million deaths didn’t originate in North Korea and Iran, after all. Nope—it was an inside job plotted by some kind of shadow government in collusion with equally shadowy corporations. And they were so meticulous in their machinations that the dim-witted American public was utterly clueless. Nukes have that effect on people.

What made the first season of Jericho a ratings fiasco was its mom and apple pie version of the apocalypse. The premise of a small town in Kansas cut off from the world, struggling for survival in the face of unimaginable destruction, was never explored in anything resembling reality—or even satire. The kind of uncertainty that was the premise of the series breeds either panic or ennui, but in Jericho, a lets-pull-ourselves-up-by-our-bootstraps speech by Gerald McRaney’s character invariably brought the town together. Admittedly, in the second half of the season, a bit of paranoia was brought into play, mostly in the form of the town’s feud with the neighboring town New Bern, but even that came across more as high school rivalries than survival instincts. Even as they warring factions prepared for their final showdown at the season’s finale, it came across as a crosstown rivalry.

If the first season didn’t hold up to scrutiny, Jericho nonetheless built a small, but dedicated fanbase. Perhaps the campaign to save the show was based on economics, or maybe they just didn’t know that peanuts are more akin to beans than nuts. Either way, they’re unlikely to notice that the amped up, albeit abbreviated, Season Two takes the series more deeply into the valley of the lowest common denominator.

Where Season One focused on survival, however naively, Jericho now claims to focus on rebuilding and reconstruction. Taking its cues from everything to the American Civil War to the war in Iraq, with a little bit of the American Revolution thrown in for luck, the series now goes for a play at relevance to current events. It ends up being a series of clichés we’ve seen too many times before. Even more sadly, any “statements” it makes come off more as comic book morality than three-dimensional realism. Things take an ominous turn to be sure, but they presuppose that Baghdad and Jericho are interchangeable.

What was America is splintered into three different regions—west of the ‘blue line” (defined as the Mississippi River), the newly formed Allied States of America, based in Cheyenne, Wyoming has set up a decidedly right of center government, replete with revisionist history, an appointed president and a drive for a constitutional convention designed to redefine inalienable rights. East of the Mississippi is the tattered remains of the United States, now headquartered somewhere in Ohio. Which side will win apparently depends on an alliance with the reformed Republic of Texas. For reasons that may have logic in a parallel universe, Jericho becomes the focal point in the struggle for America.

To be sure, there are any number of allegorical allusions the series could have touched upon with such a setup. The show’s producers failed to hit on any of them. In a rush to either put the dog to sleep or keep it on life support. They’ve opted for the latter, crueler option. Rather than actually tackling the issues they’ve set themselves up to confront, they’ve fallen back on the future as Old West cliché, thrown in the inevitable Big Brother on a big screen TV, thrown in a renegade secret agent and a sympathetic military commander, dashed in equal parts conspiracy and romance, and tossed it to the viewer like so many table scraps.

The days of Jericho are numbered. Hokey romance and daft conspiracies can only fuel the imagination so much. Having seen three of the seven episodes, I see very little hope for either a satisfactory conclusion, or a promiseof a third season.

Then again, I hate peanuts.

Viva Laughlin is Worth a Gamble

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Let’s get this facetious comparison out of the way up front. Viva Laughlin is nothing like the ill-fated and poorly titled Cop Rock from a few years ago. Viva Laughlin brings a smile to my face. Cop Rock, even at its best two moments, only made me cringe.

That said, forget about all the “mystery drama with music” hype surrounding Viva Laughlin. To appreciate this series, you’re going to have to suspend disbelief just a wee bit and accept it as the lark it is.
Loosely adapted from the BBC series Viva Blackpool, Viva Laughlin chronicles the adventures of Ripley Holden (Lloyd Owen) and his quest to open a casino in Laughlin, Nevada. Things are going swimmingly until his business partner suddenly withdraws funding, forcing Holden to turn to his arch-rival Nicky Fontana (Hugh Jackman) for help. Matters are further complicated when Holden’s business partner turns up murdered, leaving him as a prime suspect. That Holden has some sort of past with the dead man’s widow, Bunny (Melanie Griffith) doesn’t help Holden.

Meanwhile, Holden’s home life is a bit thorny. His wife Natalie (Madchen Amick) craves a more stable life and a bit more attention. His daughter Cheyenne, all of eighteen, is dating her 42-year old college professor. Son Jack wants to help his father fulfill his dream, even at personal cost. Throw in the obligatory handsome detective (Eric Winter) investigating the murder, and who finds himself attracted to Natalie, add Fontana’s slithery point man Marcus (DB Woodside) and you have all the necessary ingredients for an old-fashioned potboiler.

Admittedly, all of this has been done before, and it’s not the stuff of compelling drama. But that’s not the goal of Viva Laughlin. What the producers (one of whom is Jackman) are doing here is utilizing the time-worn plot devices of basic noir, turning them inside out and sending them to us with a nod and a wink to musical comedy. That’s not to say the series is a musical by any means, but the characters do, at key plot points, tend to sing along, karaoke style, with the background soundtrack. Ripley has a fondness for “Viva Las Vegas” as he makes his financing rounds. The Fontana character is introduced to the strains of “Sympathy for the Devil.”

As strange as it sounds, it’s these little musical moments that make the pilot work. Sure, they border on the hokey, unless, that is, you view them as the absent-minded wanderings of the characters’ thoughts as they go about their business. The musical numbers represent the fantasial workings of the mind when viewed in that context, and actually serve to drive the otherwise thin storyline.

Whether American audiences are willing to accept a series that veers from conventional storytelling to take stylistic risks remains to be seen. Already, some circles are dismissing Viva Laughlin as the worst of the new seasons’ crop. (Those people have not attempted to sit through an episode of Cave Men.) Whether Viva Laughlin can integrate music into the storyline without it becoming forced or stale also remains to be seen.

Either way, Viva Laughlin (airing tonight on CBS, 10 PM, ET/PT, before beginning its regular run Sunday) is worth a look. It’s a fun pilot, painted in comic book colors that call up the winner takes it spirit of Nevada.

Walking Through Weeds

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Weeds has never really been about a widowed suburbanite who deals pot to her friends and neighbors to make ends meet. That’s merely a metaphor. In fact, almost every aspect of Weeds works as metaphor. First, there’s the name of the LA suburb “Agrestic”, which is an Old English word meaning “characteristic of the fields”, but also means “crude and lacking in sophistication.” The characters in the series all represent some degree of disenfranchisement within their political and social strata. Marijuana is actually the most minor component of Weeds, serving as a crude capitalist icon from which everything else emanates. Or maybe I get high just watching Weeds. It’s addictive that way.

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Season one was an enjoyable romp through some of suburbia’s darker boulevards. While Mary-Louise Parker’s portrayal of small time suburban pot dealer Nancy Botwin was the force that kept it cohesive, the interplay between her and the characters surrounding her made the show pop. Kevin Nealon, as Doug Hunter, and Elizabeth Perkins, as Celia Hodes, in particular, were outstanding symbols of middle class extremes. Both pointed to the dirty little secrets that lurked beneath the veneer of the pristine gated community. Doug was the city councilman who was perpetually stoned, but maintained his CPA business, and Celia was the PTA president whose obsession with image didn’t preclude her extramarital activities. And, of course, both were close to Nancy.

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With season two, Weeds expands on its suburban satire, and wisely takes the storyline into more logical, often darker realms. What we get as a result is a series that weaves seamlessly between broad comedy and scalpel sharp drama, and never misses a beat between transitions. Plot points introduced in the first season flow effortlessly into the second, progressing in a way that unfolds much like life does. Alliances have shifted. Nancy and Conrad have decided to expand their operation, and grow their own. Heylia, Conrad’s aunt and Nancy’s supplier, isn’t happy about this, for obvious reasons. When Nancy’s bakery burns down (perhaps aided by Sanjay), it presents a perfect opportunity for Nancy and Conrad to eliminate the middle man, however.

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As rosy as all that may sound, the growing business is not without complications. After all, Nancy is trying to raise her two sons, Silas and Shane, who are in separate stages of pubescent male hormone pinball. Silas is exerting his male dominance factor, usually not very well. And Shane is torn between the newfound joys of masturbation and realizing that joining the debate team is a good way to make certain chicks notice him. Uncle Andy isn’t the best role model for them, but there may be hope in the Israeli ex-commando who teaches him that she can be more man than he’ll ever be (long story, that one). As if that weren’t complicated enough, Nancy has entered into a marriage of convenience with DEA agent Peter—the mutual reasoning being that he can’t ever testify against her. And after Celia defeats Doug in the city council election, they enter into a torrid affair. There’s more, but this should be enough to make your head spin.

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Of course, it could all lapse into silly comedy, but series creator Jenji Kohan and her team of writers hone each episode with such surgical precision that you barely notice the precise instants when the storyline veers into darkly dramatic territory. The characters don’t seem to realize it, either. By and large, they go blithely through their day to day routine, mostly oblivious to all but their most immediate concerns. In fact, only the characters most involved with pot, from dealers to users to Feds, are even remotely aware of the forces transpiring around them. Even then, the principals in Weeds amplify the mundane aspects of their lives to the point that the larger issues don’t register with them until they’re potentially beyond their control.

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It all culminates as the season unfolds, with the Armenian mafia in a Mexican standoff with a couple of gangsta hustlers. Both sides want Nancy’s and Conrad’s stash. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have it, since her son Silas has already jacked it. It’s a cliffhanger that surpasses Tarantino in terms of tension. Season three debuts on Showtime 13 August. I have a feeling that life in the suburbs is going to get a lot more complicated.

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In the meantime, season one (ten episodes) and season two (twelve episodes) are available on DVD, and as downloads directly from Showtime. This is groundbreaking comedy that balances outrageous humor with provocative social commentary. The beauty of it is that it never gets heavy-handed on either end of the spectrum. And even though it has moments of taut drama, Weeds never strays far from being, well... mellow.

The Continuing Journey of Traveler

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Admittedly, summer is not the optimal season for television viewing. It’s the time of year when our attention turns to outdoor sports, barbecues, swimming pools, tanning and, in general, playing chicken with skin cancer. It’s always been sort of an unspoken rule that TV sleeps through the May sweeps, not to be awakened ‘til the ballyhoo of the fall season.

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Those rules are changing. Partly because cable has altered the landscape of programming, and partly (and perhaps more importantly) because the Internet has made traditional scheduling much more fluid, the networks are venturing into summer programming that would have been unthinkable even a few years ago. Granted, most summer fare consists of mindless game shows and third-tier reality series, but now and again a series like Traveler comes along that makes you realize summer isn’t all fun and games.

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For Jay Burchell (Matthew Bomer) and Tyler Fogg (Logan Marshall-Green), it’s a summer they certainly weren’t expecting. I wrote about it here when the series had its sneak peek premiere 10 May. Three grad-school buddies embark on what is supposed to be a cross-country last-hurrah road trip before entering into their workaday futures. But when one of the trio, Will Traveler, convinces Jay Burchell and Tyler Fog to rollerblade through an iconic art museum in New York City, the first leg of the road trip takes a very twisted turn. An explosion rocks the museum, and Jay and Tyler suddenly find themselves prime suspects in an act of domestic terrorism. Worse, they gradually realize that their friend Will Traveler set them up to cover up his own involvement in the bombing.

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I’m not going to recap every scene in the two hour premiere that debuted 30 May — you can see all two hours of it at ABC.com. But I will tell you this: Traveler is the most frenetic series you’ll see on prime time this summer. The more the plot unwinds, the more twisted it becomes. What begins as a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time morphs into something much more insidious, in which nothing is as it seems on the surface. All we know for certain is Burchell and Fog are the only innocents in what is a shadowy conspiracy involving the top levels of government. We only get pieces of information in tiny fragments, and even those are not to be trusted. In fact, we can’t even be certain that Fog or Burchell are the innocents they appear to be.

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The last moments of the premiere tell us that Homeland Security is involved in some way in that plot, but we still have no idea what exactly the plot is, or why Burchell and Fog were set up to take the fall for it. As convoluted as it is,Traveler moves at such a frenzied pace that it’s impossible to be bored with it. It taps into our collective paranoia in a wildly entertaining way, and only gives us time to think about plot holes days after viewing the episode. Even when we do consider such inconsistencies, we’re inclined to think they’re just another trick of the conspiracy.

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Traveler is the most provocative series of the network summer fare. Period. Originally scheduled to have a 13 episode run, ABC pared it back to an eight-episode run. True, it doesn’t have the best time slot (10 PM EST, Wednesdays), but it’s a series that deserves a chance. Watch it, or be a part of the Conspiracy.

Creature Comforts Looks At Our Neuroses

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On the surface, Creature Comforts (premiering tonight on CBS, 8PM EST) comes across as just another summer replacement series. The premise is simple: reduce some man on the street interviews to sound bites, and reproduce them with animal cartoon faces. Fortunately, the premise must have been pitched to CBS a little better than that.

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Creature Comforts is, in fact, one of the brightest spots in a summer season dominated by wannabe “reality” pirates, wannabe filmmaker competitions and, yes, even bingo as a televised sport. Based on the British TV series of the same name, Creature Comforts is a welcome departure from the tried and true formulaic series to which we’ve grown accustomed. There is no plot here — there aren’t even vignettes, although there are some recurring characters. Instead, we get little snippets of conversations, the kind you hear every day, and barely notice. For instance, we hear a woman telling a man how he’ll never get close to her romantically, not particularly amusing until you realize these are pandas conversing. There are bees suffering from allergies, sharks talking about the power of a winning smile, various hypochondriacs and neurotics all in animal and insect guise, all forcing us to look at ourselves in a pointed, if somewhat skewed style.

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Produced by Aardman Animations, the same team that produced the theatrical films Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run, Creature Comforts masterfully utilizes stop motion animation to create a world that may appear fanciful, but strikes close to the urban heart. I don’t want to run through all the skits here — words wouldn’t do them justice. Take my word for it. If you want a welcome diversion from from the tripe that is standard summer TV fare, you’d be hard pressed to find something as charming and insightful as Creature Comforts.

Farewell to the King

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Tonight marks something of a milestone in the history of television. After nine seasons, The King of Queens airs is final episode, and with its conclusion, a chapter in situation comedies is closed.

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Airing on CBS opposite ratings juggernauts 24 and Heroes, it’s unlikely the demise of The King of Queens will be regarded with much more respect than a backpage obituary. It could have been saved, perhaps — placed in a different timeslot as it had been on more than a few occasions in the past — but it opted to go out with a modicum of dignity. Sometimes, you instinctively know your time has come.

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.Nonetheless, it’s been a good run for The King of Queens. Debuting 21 September 1998 (the same night Will and Grace premiered), The King of Queens ends its reign as the last live-action sitcom to have originated in the 20th century. That in itself says something. As much as the world seems to have changed in the 21st century, the series demonstrated that our core values — or at least, our sense of humor — haven’t radically altered since the early days of The Honeymooners. In fact, both series touched a common nerve in the American psyche.

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It wasn’t necessary to follow The King of Queens slavishly, any more than it was to follow The Honeymooners or I Love Lucy or Dick Van Dyke. Like the characters in those earlier sitcoms, Doug and Carrie didn’t change much from episode to episode. You could drop in on them anytime, and know without asking that Arthur was still living in the basement, that Carrie was still trying in vain to keep the household sane, that Doug was never going to grow up and they’d still be doing the same thing with a different twist next time you dropped by for a visit. That’s the way the world worked in old school sitcoms, and that’s why we remember them. They provided us with an odd sense of stability.

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That’s not to say that The King of Queens leaves us without resolution. Secrets are revealed left and right — secrets we heretofore never knew existed. And though it appears that Doug and Carrie will end their reign in divorce, the finale offers twists and turns to rival its network competitors. It might be a good day to finally invest in a TiVo.

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I won’t mourn the network passing of The King of Queens overmuch. I see it more as passing into an eternal life of syndication. Still, I have to wonder where the future of the network sitcom lies.

Is Mike Doyle the New Jack Bauer?

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I've been a diehard devotee of 24 from Day One (no pun intended.) For five seasons, I gleefully accepted every leap in logic, every defiance of time and space, every torture scene (I'm thinking all of Day Three's plotline here) that they could throw at me. I never waivered from my devotion to Jack Bauer, no matter how preposterous the plotlines became. After all, the writers were working on the fly, and even they had no idea where it was going. You have to get behind that kind of moxie.

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After the ratings triumph that was Day Five, it was screamingly apparent that 24 would be around for a while. Sure enough, FOX guaranteed it at least three more seasons, and made Keifer Sutherland an executive producer of the series. It also became increasingly obvious at that point that the series was about to jump the shark.

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Let's face it: Day Six has been an almost incomprehensible mess, full of plotlines that sprouted like weeds, and were discarded just as quickly. It's as if the writers realized they'd painted themselves into a corner when they shipped Bauer off on a slow boat to China at the end of Day Five. From the moment Day Six opened, with Bauer released after 20 months of Chinese interrogation, nothing felt right. Within two hours, he got a designer haircut and a shave, (presumably debriefed while he was being groomed) and set about to doing what he does best: killing bad guys in creative ways. And that was all in his first couple of hours of freedom.

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Sure, other things have happened--nuclear attack on LA with 12000 casualties, failed coups, dueling terrorists, near-martial law in the US, paranoid romantic intrigues at CTU--but they were treated as minor annoyances. Bauer got all that cleaned up with six hours to spare--plenty of time to thread a new set-up poised to place Mike Doyle center stage next season.

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I'm not privy to CTU memorandums or FOX board meetings, but in my own private spoiler world, I'm almost certain that Rick Schroder's Mike Doyle will be the new 24 action figure next season. That's not to say Bauer will disappear--he may become next season's CTU director, a position befitting a TV series executive producer. Bauer's days as a renegade lone wolf world savior are almost certainly over, though. He's getting a bit long in the tooth to make it even remotely believable. It's time for Sutherland to pass the torch to younger blood, ala Bruce Willis.

Bauer can still be menacing, even in a desk job.

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The Mike Doyle character came out of nowhere this season, a sort of young Jack Bauer whose dedication to CTU was beyond reproach. While other characters in Day Six come across as plot devices with no discernible motivation, Doyle has been fleshed out as the season progressed, so that now we see him as a man with a shadowy past who keeps people at arm's length as a defensive mechanism. We know he's a student of comparative religion, that he is not above bending rules in the name of the greater good, that his dedication causes him to be reckless on occasion, that he will get his mission accomplished come hell or high water. But most importantly, he's playing Robin to Bauer's Batman.

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When I add all that together, and couple it with the fact that both Bauer and Doyle are blond, grimace at inappropriate moments and have similar tastes in street-fighting clothes, it's not a major leap of faith to see Doyle as Bauer's heir apparent. It makes sense in other ways, too. Schroder has time to grow into the stress lines that are part of Bauer's character. Since there is a bit of a similarity between the two, his presence wouldn't have a jarring effect on audiences. Since he's mysterious at this point, the series writers have a new sphere in which to work. And as the new world savior, he could serve as the perfect foil to a more seasones, wiser, more beauracratic Bauer.

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I could be wrong, of course. This is 24, after all. Doyle could be killed off next week. WWIII might break out, making Day Seven a post-apocalyptic snooze. I sort of doubt it, though. One thing is certain though. CTU is too small for two blond bad boy world saviors.

Why the Boomers Are a Big Noise

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From 1946 through 1964, America experienced a population growth unprecedented in human history. World War II had ended in 1945, and the country was collectively anxious to enjoy the new prosperity they now had, including rushing headlong into parenthood. Over the next eighteen years, Americans did just that-- with gusto. The result was a baby boom that increased the population by nearly 80 million. I was born right in the middle of that boom, and that may explain in part why I found the new PBS documentary The Boomer Century: 1946-2046 so fascinating.

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The Boomer Century is hardly a nostalgic romp, however. Instead, it looks at the boomer generation's past, present and future in an insightful and entertaining way. The result is a documentary that spans not only the the concerns of the boomers themselves, but addresses the impact they will have on future generations of Americans. Hosted by psychologist and gerontologist, Dr. Ken Dychtwald, The Boomer Century is a fast-paced story in three parts.

The first part focuses on how post -war American society shaped the generation, from the explosion of television culture (In 1946, only 6000 homes owned televisions; within a decade that number had mushroomed to nearly forty million.), to rock and roll, to the social upheaval of the sixties, to the student activism that followed. The second part delves into how this generation reshaped the workplace and redefined lifestyle, for better or worse. The third, and perhaps most important, part examines the impact aging boomers are having on society as a whole. The boomers are such a huge part of the populace, that every eight seconds, another one turns 60. The implications of that are enormous.

Produced and directed by Joel Westbrook and Neil Steinberg, and written by Oscar winner Mark Harris, The Boomer Century offers an incisive look at the generation that has redefined how Americans view themselves, both personally and as a culture. Interspersed throughout the documentary are interviews with a number of prominent boomers, including filmmakers Oliver Stone and Rob Reiner, satirist Lewis Black, novelist Erica Jong, White House press secretary Tony Snow, civil rights pioneer Julian Bond, and futurist Alvin Toffler, among others. They're seamlessly edited into the themes of the program, adding credibility and aiding the fast-paced feel of the program.While this is a program that has an airy aura about it, it challenges all viewers with its questions about what the future holds for American society as the boomers age. It also dispels popular myths about the so-called "Me Generation." Boomers are much more likely to contribute to charities than any other demographic, and have more than 50% more buying power than the coveted 18-39 aged bracket. Eighty percent of boomers intend to keep working after retirement.
On the downside, boomers face enormous challenges in the years ahead. More than a third live paycheck to paycheck, with net assets of less than $1000. Unless a cure or treatment is found, it's projected that 15 million boomers will be stricken by dementia by the middle of the century. And since boomers are living longer, strains will be put on retirement resources over the coming years.For the most part, The Boomer Century remains optimistic about the future of the boomers. While it doesn't shy away from the possibility of "age wars" due to the financial strain that they may put on future generations, it by and large is confident that the boomers will continue to redefine society well into this century.The Boomer Century premieres on PBS March 28, 9 PM EST. Check local listings for schedules. It's a fascinating program that will give you pause to think. Or at least smile.Produced and directed by Joel Westbrook and Neil Steinberg, and written by Oscar winner Mark Harris, The Boomer Century offers an incisive look at the generation that has redefined how Americans view themselves, both personally and as a culture. Interspersed throughout the documentary are interviews with a number of prominent boomers, including filmmakers Oliver Stone and Rob Reiner, satirist Lewis Black, novelist Erica Jong, White House press secretary Tony Snow, civil rights pioneer Julian Bond, and futurist Alvin Toffler, among others. They're seamlessly edited into the themes of the program, adding credibility and aiding the fast-paced feel of the program.While this is a program that has an airy aura about it, it challenges all viewers with its questions about what the future holds for American society as the boomers age. It also dispels popular myths about the so-called "Me Generation." Boomers are much more likely to contribute to charities than any other demographic, and have more than 50% more buying power than the coveted 18-39 aged bracket. Eighty percent of boomers intend to keep working after retirement.
will continue to redefine society well into this century.The Boomer Century premieres on PBS March 28, 9 PM EST. Check local listings for schedules. It's a fascinating program that will give you pause to think. Or at least smile.Produced and directed by Joel Westbrook and Neil Steinberg, and written by Oscar winner Mark Harris, The Boomer Century offers an incisive look at the generation that has redefined how Americans view themselves, both personally and as a culture. Interspersed throughout the documentary are interviews with a number of prominent boomers, including filmmakers Oliver Stone and Rob Reiner, satirist Lewis Black, novelist Erica Jong, White House press secretary Tony Snow, civil rights pioneer Julian Bond, and futurist Alvin Toffler, among others. They're seamlessly edited into the themes of the program, adding credibility and aiding the fast-paced feel of the program.While this is a program that has an airy aura about it, it challenges all viewers with its questions about what the future holds for American society as the boomers age. It also dispels popular myths about the so-called "Me Generation." Boomers are much more likely to contribute to charities than any other demographic, and have more than 50% more buying power than the coveted 18-39 aged bracket. Eighty percent of boomers intend to keep working after retirement.
On the downside, boomers face enormous challenges in the years ahead. More than a third live paycheck to paycheck, with net assets of less than $1000. Unless a cure or treatment is found, it's projected that 15 million boomers will be stricken by dementia by the middle of the century. And since boomers are living longer, strains will be put on retirement resources over the coming years.For the most part, The Boomer Century remains optimistic about the future of the boomers. While it doesn't shy away from the possibility of "age wars" due to the financial strain that they may put on future generations, it by and large is confident that the boomers will continue to redefine society well into this century.The Boomer Century premieres on PBS March 28, 9 PM EST. Check local listings for schedules. It's a fascinating program that will give you pause to think. Or at least smile.Produced and directed by Joel Westbrook and Neil Steinberg, and written by Oscar winner Mark Harris, The Boomer Century offers an incisive look at the generation that has redefined how Americans view themselves, both personally and as a culture. Interspersed throughout the documentary are interviews with a number of prominent boomers, including filmmakers Oliver Stone and Rob Reiner, satirist Lewis Black, novelist Erica Jong, White House press secretary Tony Snow, civil rights pioneer Julian Bond, and futurist Alvin Toffler, among others. They're seamlessly edited into the themes of the program, adding credibility and aiding the fast-paced feel of the program.While this is a program that has an airy aura about it, it challenges all viewers with its questions about what the future holds for American society as the boomers age. It also dispels popular myths about the so-called "Me Generation." Boomers are much more likely to contribute to charities than any other demographic, and have more than 50% more buying power than the coveted 18-39 aged bracket. Eighty percent of boomers intend to keep working after retirement.
On the downside, boomers face enormous challenges in the years ahead. More than a third live paycheck to paycheck, with net assets of less than $1000. Unless a cure or treatment is found, it's projected that 15 million boomers will be stricken by dementia by the middle of the century. And since boomers are living longer, strains will be put on retirement resources over the coming years.For the most part, The Boomer Century remains optimistic about the future of the boomers. While it doesn't shy away from the possibility of "age wars" due to the financial strain that they may put on future generations, it by and large is confident that the boomers will continue to redefine society well into this century.The Boomer Century premieres on PBS March 28, 9 PM EST. Check local listings for schedules. It's a fascinating program that will give you pause to think. Or at least smile.Produced and directed by Joel Westbrook and Neil Steinberg, and written by Oscar winner Mark Harris, The Boomer Century offers an incisive look at the generation that has redefined how Americans view themselves, both personally and as a culture. Interspersed throughout the documentary are interviews with a number of prominent boomers, including filmmakers Oliver Stone and Rob Reiner, satirist Lewis Black, novelist Erica Jong, White House press secretary Tony Snow, civil rights pioneer Julian Bond, and futurist Alvin Toffler, among others. They're seamlessly edited into the themes of the program, adding credibility and aiding the fast-paced feel of the program.While this is a program that has an airy aura about it, it challenges all viewers with its questions about what the future holds for American society as the boomers age. It also dispels popular myths about the so-called "Me Generation." Boomers are much more likely to contribute to charities than any other demographic, and have more than 50% more buying power than the coveted 18-39 aged bracket. Eighty percent of boomers intend to keep working after retirement.
On the downside, boomers face enormous challenges in the years ahead. More than a third live paycheck to paycheck, with net assets of less than $1000. Unless a cure or treatment is found, it's projected that 15 million boomers will be stricken by dementia by the middle of the century. And since boomers are living longer, strains will be put on retirement resources over the coming years.For the most part, The Boomer Century remains optimistic about the future of the boomers. While it doesn't shy away from the possibility of "age wars" due to the financial strain that they may put on future generations, it by and large is confident that the boomers will continue to redefine society well into this century.The Boomer Century premieres on PBS March 28, 9 PM EST. Check local listings for schedules. It's a fascinating program that will give you pause to think. Or at least smile.

The Crystalline Vision of Soundies

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It was 1981, and the generation that was the first wave of yuppie culture was on top of the world. Everything was changing quickly--it was the beginning of the science fiction world. Times were good, at least from a material point of view. For 800$US, you could be the first kid on your block to have the crystal clear digital sound of a new invention called the compact disc player. Sony reigned supreme with the top-loading Betamax VCR and cable TV was making an impact that would have everlasting effects. A large part of that techie entertainment revolution was a music video cable station called MTV, which signed on with the appropriately titled clip "Video Killed the Radio Star."

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It was a world born fully flowered into existence by ex-hippies who had knelt dutifully at the twin altars of consumerism and short attention spans. They had reinvented the world in their own image, and it was good. This MTV thing, especially, offered all sorts of commercial potential possibilities. It could take what had heretofore been identified with teen angst and outright rebellion, and morph it into the mainstream mindset. Malls would be cool places to hang out, and every Buffy and Todd could disguise themselves as real-life stars. Record sales would boom, there'd be a Camaro in every garage and hair gel sales would shoot through the stratosphere.

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The thing is, though, there was nothing revolutionary about it. It had all been done before--over forty years before, in fact. Soundies: A Musical History (airing throughout March on PBS) proves beyond a doubt that our forebears were rockin' with their own version of MTV. It was 1940, and Americans, mostly recovered from the Great Depression, were feeling pretty good about themselves. The country was getting back on its feet and the thirst for entertainment had never been stronger. The time was ripe for the Mills Novelty Company to introduce an interesting machine called the Panoram.

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About the size of a refrigerator, the Panoram spawned a revolution in entertainment. A forerunner of the 16mm film projector, it allowed users to see for the first time the performers who they had idolized via sound recordings--and all for one thin dime. Loaded with eight 3-minute clips, the Panoram afforded viewers random opportunities to actually see performances by some of the country's most popular musicians. Duke Ellington, Louis Jordan, Les Paul, Cab Calloway, among others, are all featured on Soundies. The three minute performances are restored to pristine clarity, and provide us with not only a delightful timetrip into the entertainment of the day, but a glimpse into how quickly shifts in sociopolitical climates dramatically influence the landscape of popular culture.

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The early soundies--those made in 1941 prior to America's entry into WW2--were lighthearted, often boisterous romps that predated some of the styles associated with current music videos. They featured freewheeling dance sequences, mimed performances, minimal storylines and, of course, leggy eyecandy. Those made after America's entry into the war are still upbeat, but more conservative in style, and reflect the patriotic fervor that served the war effort. But throughout their reign, the soundies represented, however unintentionally, the flowing canvas of an ever-shifting culture.

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The last soundie was made mid-way through 1947. The soldiers were home from the war, people were spending more time at home and a new invention called television was just beginning to make its presence known. But from 1941-1946, the soundies reigned supreme as America's most accessible form of music entertainment.With over 1865 soundies produced in that time, they remain an invaluable link to what the culture was, and a hint as what was to come.

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Soundies: A Musical History is a vastly entertaining primer on the almost forgotten phenomenon of the soundies. Featuring commentary by Winton Marsalis, George Duke, Hugh Hefner, Leonard Maltin and others, this is a film that explores an era not that different from our own. Hosted by Michael Feinstein, and featured throughout PBS' March pledge drive,Soundies: A Musical History more than qualifies as "television worth viewing."